Once downloaded the package we must run it as an administrator;the installation of the Monaco font is required

After the font installation, we have the access to the IDE

We set the Location in Tools->Preferences->Language Location

and the serial port paramenters in Tools->Preferences->Serial

We plug the device into an USB port and set the serial port on uPyCraft

We choose the device type; in this case it is ESP8266

By clicking on the connection icon we access to the device and view the files on it

The firmware installation expands on the device only the Python file boot.py

The tool allows to download examples of MicroPython code for the board, blink.py for example

Clicking the “Download and Run” button we load the code onto the device and run it

In this example the led of the Nodemcu DevKit blinks.

Linux

The tool is similar in the Linux version; once downloaded the package to which we have to assign the execution right we run it. We must assign to the user the access to the serial port with the command, already seen above

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sudo usermod-a-Gdialout USER

In our case, on Debian 9, we have the following screens similar to what we saw on Windows.

In the uPyCraft IDE

We set the Location in Tools->Preferences->Language Location

and the serial port paramenters in Tools->Preferences->Serial

We plug the device into an USB port and set the serial port on uPyCraft

We choose the device type; in this case it is ESP8266

By clicking on the connection icon we access to the device and view the files on it

The firmware installation expands on the device only the Python file boot.py

The tool allows to download examples of MicroPython code for the board, blink.py for example

Clicking the “Download and Run” button we load the code onto the device and run it

As in Windows the led of the Nodemcu DevKit blinks..

In version 0.30 for Windows we noticed some bugs, so for this operating system we continue to use the uPyCraft version 0.29.

Further informations about uPyCraft can be found at the following site

In our case, we downloaded the version 3.6.4 for 64-bit systems. We installed the package with administrative rights

After proceeding to add Python in the Path we click “Install Now”

After the installation, we open a dos command propmt and check the installed Python version

Always from the dos command prompt we proceed to the installation of esptool with the command

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pip install esptool

At this point we can proceed to the MicroPython firmware upload on the Nodemcu esp8266 DevKit.Of course, it is necessary to have the serial-ttl drivers installed for your DevKit model on Windows. Now go into the folder where the firmware has been downloaded and run the following commands from the dos command prompt

From the OctoPrint site we can download an image for Raspberry PI with the system already ready; in the case of the Orange PI PC we have to install and configure OctoPrint on a Linux image.

You can also use a Linux image available for Orange PI PC and run the steps related to OctoPrint package installation, but you have to check the prerequisites for Octoprint python package installation.

We instead built for this article an image using the Armban scripts.

As a first step, prepare the micro sd card with an Armbian image.In the specific case, we’ll use a Debian Jessie image created using the Armbian script, as indicated on the link

To enable the wireless card connect with putty (screen on Linux) to the previously connected USB TTL serial and go to the /etc/config folder; edit the network file and add at the end the following section

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config interface'wlan'

option proto'dhcp'

Save and run

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uci commit network

Edit the wireless file and add at the end the section

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config wifi-iface'sta_radio0'

option device'radio0'

option mode'sta'

option ssid'Access Point'

option key'password'

option encryption'psk2'

option network'wlan'

where Access Point and password indicate the Access Point name and password; the wireless security setting is wpa2.

Save and run

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uci set wireless.radio0.disabled=0;uci commit wireless;

Enable the wireless, running

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wifi

Access the Lede interface with the address assigned by the Access Point

Set the password and access to the Lede management.

In this firmware, the leds on the board are not synchronized with wireless operations, unlike from OpenWrt firmware with the Mediatek proprietary interface and drivers.

In the next article, we will give some examples of interfacing with the arduino IDE, based on the tutorial on the Mediatek site using this custom Lede image

At this point, the system is configured as an Access Point.In our case, we wanted to set the Link 7688 Duo as a client of an Access Point with WPA2 security.To get this setting, if you have a visible network, go to the Network section of the main web console interface

set the values for the Access Point and restart the system

If the Access Point is hidden, you should set the parameters directly in the configuration files in /etc /config.

Connect with putty to the previously connected USB TTL serial and run the commands for Access Points with wpa2 security

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uci set wireless.sta.ssid=ACCESS POINT

uci set wireless.sta.key=password access point

uci set wireless.sta.encryption=psk2

Save the settings

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uci commit

and activate the new configuration

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wifi_mode sta

Check the /etc/config/wireless file; you should see the addition of a new section, config wifi-iface ‘ap’, to connect the board to the access point

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root@mylinkit:/etc/config# cat wireless

config wifi-device'radio0'

option type'ralink'

option variant'mt7628'

option country'TW'

option hwmode'11g'

option htmode'HT40'

option channel'auto'

option disabled'0'

option linkit_mode'sta'

config wifi-iface'ap'

option device'radio0'

option mode'ap'

option network'lan'

option ifname'ra0'

option encryption'none'

option ssid'LinkIt_Smart_7688_1C4775'

option seq'1'

config wifi-iface'sta'

option device'radio0'

option mode'sta'

option network'wan'

option ifname'apcli0'

option led'mediatek:orange:wifi'

option ssid'AccessPoint'

option key'password'

option encryption'psk2'

root@mylinkit:/etc/config#

Now the card acts as a client and you can access it using the address released by the Access Point or by name as indicated by the documentation

We download, having a BeagleBone Black Rev. C, bone-debian-8.6-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2016-11-06-4gb.img.xz. Unpack the 7zip image and load into a micro sd card with Win32DiskImager, as done for the Orange PI PC

If we wanted to load that image on the internal flash, we must edit the /boot/uEnv.txt files on a Linux system and uncomment the line

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#cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

In that case, when we start the board the system will rewrite the operating system present on the internal flash with the version loaded on the micro sd card. We do not follow this road in order to do all the tests on the sd card leaving the internal partition unmodified. So let’s connect our Beaglebone to a network router. We insert the micro sd card and startup the development board. In some boards we need to press of the USER / BOOT button

because the operating system boots from micro sd card; with our board it is not necessary to perform this operation. We have to log on Beagleone now; the avahi-daemon service is already active on the Beaglebone and Linux systems resolve the address by hostname; Windows, instead, needs tha samba service activated to solve the Beaglebone hostname; installing samba we obtain the hostname recognition with the protocol netbios from Windows. If you are using a Windows machine to work with the Beagelbone you must first check the ip assigned by the network router to the BeagleBone. From a Linux system, for example, connect to the Beaglebone using ssh as debian / temppwd and the beaglebone hostname

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ssh debian@beaglebone

In Windows we need to install the samba service first to have the same functionality. Proceed at this point with the updating and samba installation

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sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install samba

sudo apt-get upgrade

After the updates and samba services activation, we are ready to show examples with our BeagleBone and we are able to connect to it using the beaglebone and beaglebone.local hostnames. In the next article we will see tools already available on the board and how to add more features.

We can install the ftp service too, as we could use it in next articles

In the market there are several TV boxes equipped with Android. Among the most common there are those based on soc Amlogic. For devices with this module there is the way to run, evenin parallelwithout removing the Android image, a media center system based on Linux and Kodi, which is Libreelec.It is afork of themediacenterOpenELECsystem

The supported platforms are similar to those already available for OpenELEC, but the community is carrying out the development of other images besidesthe official ones; this is the case for the Amlogic platform.

We’ll install a Libreelec image for an Amlogic S905 box, in our case the box is Android Beelink MiniMX III. The box comes with on board an Android firmware on the internal flash. The next steps allow to keep the Android firmware of the internal flash and Libreelec on the micro sd card. These instructions can be repeated at least in part with other boxes with soc Amlogic. Refer to Libreelec forum for more insights.

The first operation is to download the image from the link given on Libreelec forum

Amlogic S905 Libreelec Images

We download the version 7.0.2.007

Libreelec S905 7.0.2.007

At the link above there also the dtb files, device tree file, file containing the specifications of the hardware system, for different boxes already tested.

We unzip the file and load it on a micro sd card in a similar way to what was done for the creationofOpenELECimage for theOrange IP PC

Again we launch Win32DiskImager and after unpacking the LibreELEC-S905.aarch64-7.0.2.007.img.gz file we proceed to the writing on the micro sd card.

At this point,we insert the micro sd card into the box that we start holding down, in the case of this model, the reset button on the bottom of the box. This is a one-time process; to subsequent reboots the system starts Libreelec, if there is the Micro SD card, or Android system, present on the internal flash, in the absence of micro sd card.

The image automatically uses the remote.conf file for the remote control from the Android image intalled in the internal flash.

The configuration steps are quite similar to what was done forOpenELEC Orange PI PC, such as to enable the ssh daemon, etc; in this case the remote control, being a box supported by the image, is already working.

WARNING: The image installation on the device is at your own risk. We accept no responsibility if the installation leads to malfunction or block of the device. Before performing any operation, make sure that you have the original image of the box so you can recover the Android system in case of issues.

In the next article we will seehow to configure an infrared remote control with NEC protocol on a system based onsoc Amlogic

After the drivers installation we can download the Nodemcu flasher in a folder and plug the USB-Micro Usb cable between the pc and the devkit. Our COM port should be visible in the Windows device manager in the COM devices list

In our case it is available on the COM port5.

The steps to follow arethe following:

Run Nodemcu Flasher and choose the COM5 port.

In Config select INTERNAL://NODEMCU with address 0x00000.

In Advanced we have the following parameters

Baudate: 9600 as specified in our devkit.

Flash size: 4MByte. Flash size of our devkit.

Flash Speed: 40MHz. The default speed.

SPI Mode: DIO is the default for 4Mb flash size.

Proceed with the flash of the firmware pressing the FLASH button

The application shows a progress bar of the operation

At the end you can close the window and make sure everything is working properly using a LUA script uploader program, which we’ll see in the next article

First step is to assess the nodemcu development kit model we are working with. In our case we’ll perform the various operations with a development board Nodemcu V0.9. The USB-Serial chipset in this case is the CH340G

The drivers for this chipset can be downloaded directly from github of nodemcu